BRASILIA -- Brazil's current-account deficit is expected to end the year at $23.7 billion and to fall to $20.6 billion in 2002, the nation's central bank said Thursday.

The central bank, which unveiled its 2002 prediction for the first time, had previously forecast a 2001 current account gap of $26.5 billion. Ilan Goldfajn, the bank's director of economic research, said an expected improvement in the country's trade balance would help...